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SCO Postpones Lawsuit, Now Threatening Two 532

zzxc writes "In a surprise turn of events, SCO says that they need more time to prepare an announcement of who they are going to sue. According to SCO, the lawsuits will be announced tomorrow morning shortly before a phone-in conference in which will be outlining their financial report. You can call 1-800-818-5264 code 141144 Wednesday at 9:00am MST to join in with your questions, or listen to the webcast. They also have said that these first two lawsuits will be against companies that hold SCO Unix licenses. (EV1.net servers or Lindows?)"
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SCO Postpones Lawsuit, Now Threatening Two

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  • Oh my God (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iswm ( 727826 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:28PM (#8447431) Homepage
    What a surpise! Sheesh, this is never going to go anywhere.
    • No Surprise (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mj2k ( 726937 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:35PM (#8447523)
      Who really expected them to follow through? There continual refusals to provide proof of Linux infringing on SCO patents is ample evidence that their lawsuit has no basis. They (SCO executives) would be wise to not further expand their lawsuits, as each company they sue can countersue for defamation. Overall this seems like a big scam - intimidate businesses into giving SCO money for linux licenses,causing SCOX to rise, and enriching McBride & co at the expense of the clueless investors who continue to buy worthless stock.
      • by Pieroxy ( 222434 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:14PM (#8447909) Homepage
        each company they sue can countersue for defamation

        And so? What exactly do they have to loose in the process?
      • Re:No Surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

        by baggins2002 ( 654972 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:28PM (#8448034) Journal
        So what, a company that is broke that gets counter sued is still broke.
        SCO has nothing to lose, that's the main reason they are doing this.
        They just found a loophole in our legal system and are abusing it. They didn't get that 50M infusion to piss it away trying to sell a product. They already proved they couldn't make money doing that.
        But they can can take that 50M into court and cause a lot of problems and increase the FUD.
      • by mandolin ( 7248 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @11:51PM (#8448591)
        Who really expected them to follow through?

        I did, because SCO has a history of doing the dumbest thing possible, and suing another huge company is even dumber than not suing after they said they would.

      • Re:No Surprise (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Camel Pilot ( 78781 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:56AM (#8449050) Homepage Journal
        each company they sue can countersue for defamation

        Unfortunately the worst enemy is one who has nothing to lose. SCO knows all their bases belong to IBM and if they lose (which they will) there will be nothing else left.

        This example should have people questioning the protection that a corporation provides. When it comes to reckless and slanderous behavior the liability needs to extend to the perpetrators personally and the officers of the corporation.

        If the board felt that their own fortunes could be threatened by Darl and crew's actions you would see some a very different course of events.
        • by jhylkema ( 545853 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @01:44AM (#8449265)

          Quoth the poster:

          Unfortunately the worst enemy is one who has nothing to lose. SCO knows all their bases belong to IBM and if they lose (which they will) there will be nothing else left.

          Excuse me, sir, but I must ask you for your geek card.

          All their base are belong to IBM.

          IBM to SCO: "You have no chance to survive make your time."

    • Re:Oh my God (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gcaseye6677 ( 694805 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:36PM (#8447537)
      When SCO does finally sue someone, it will not be for using a Linux distribution like they want you to think. When the court filings are examined, it will probably be a breach of contract suit for some silly violation, which means they will have to sue a current SCO Unix customer. But they will do their best to spin it to the press as a Linux IP infringement suit, and lots of dumbasses will eat it all up and buy more SCO stock.
      • We can only hope (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:51PM (#8447720)
        That somehow it backfires such that when the press spins it, it comes out with headlines like "SCO begins suing own customers".

        All this would take is the press paying any attention to anything not directly from SCO's mouth. But maybe that's wishful thinking.
      • by Animats ( 122034 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @11:38PM (#8448504) Homepage
        That sounds right. They might actually be able to make a semi-legitimate contract claim against a customer who was an SCO licensee. No way are they going to win against a Linux user on copyright grounds alone.

        Since they scheduled the announcement for their earnings call, the numbers must be truly awful this quarter. If they had good numbers to report, they wouldn't need a distraction like this.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:40PM (#8447599)
      Because originally SCO architected and did the preliminary work as a Service deal. Part of the contract that SCO delivered to Lindows stated that SCO would 'take care' of the GPL aspects of the code and would not provide anything that might get Lindows into trouble such as tainted source code etc etc etc.....

      Lindows later went their own way and pursued a more debian focused route, however the contract still stands, though is ulimately open to interpretation
    • by hdparm ( 575302 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:02PM (#8447825) Homepage
      Right. SCO lawyers use this formula:

      S=(1+X)i

      where

      S= number of Lawsuits they're going to file
      X= number of days following the original announcement
      i= no explanation needed

      Thus, S is always going to be an imaginary number.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:28PM (#8447433)
    They freak me out.
  • Wha? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:29PM (#8447440)
    They also have said that these first two lawsuits will be against companies that hold SCO Unix licenses. (EV1.net servers or Lindows?)"

    Huh? That can't be right. How could they be suing EV1 when they've already paid their extort^K^K^K^Klicense money.
  • by Knunov ( 158076 ) <eat@my.ass> on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:29PM (#8447444) Homepage
    "We will sue TWO of them against the gates of the courtroom...IN ONE HOUR!"

    Knunov
  • irresponsible (Score:5, Insightful)

    by porkface ( 562081 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:30PM (#8447451) Journal
    Somebody get on the call and ask them "If you have such a strong company and case, why do you feel the need to couple lawsuit announcements with your financial call?"
    • Re:irresponsible (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Mechanik ( 104328 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:35PM (#8447519) Homepage
      Somebody get on the call and ask them "If you have such a strong company and case, why do you feel the need to couple lawsuit announcements with your financial call?"

      I would LOVE to see the Slashdot effect at work on this conference call. I don't suppose we're so lucky as for SCO to have set this up on a system where they pay per user connected, are we? :-)

      That and it would be great having 10,000 slashdotters heckling them :-)


      Mechanik
    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @11:41PM (#8448524)
      Disclaimer: IANAL. I am, however, a teleconference operator.

      Do you want to ask Darl McBride an embarrasing question or two in front of most of the financial world? Sure, we all do!

      The problem, however, is this: In a financial results call, not just anyone is allowed to ask a question. The people presenting the call get to pick and choose who gets to speak. Usually, private investors, media, and anyone from a company that has generated bad press do not get called on. So what can we do to weasel our way to the front of the question queue?

      Well, if SCO has set up their call intelligently, nothing. The access code, 141144, might be the public access code, with a different code (or even a different phone number) given to people who can be trusted to ask "good" questions. But if everyone is coming in on the same number, then we have a chance.

      You'll know you have a shot at a question if, instead of being joined to the call immediately after entering your access code, you instead talk to an operator. The operator will most likely ask you your name, your company's name, and maybe your phone number. If this happens, lie to them. Make up a name and phone number, and tell them that you are with an investment firm. Just pick something: CIBC World Markets, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, anything like that will do. Bonus points if you pick a company that has invested in SCO. Write down your information so that you can remember it! The trick is to make yourself look like you'll ask a safe question, so that they'll look at you in the queue and say, "Hey, let's take that Eddie Smith from CSFB next..."

      If you do get called on for a question, remember:
      1) Be polite. "OMG Darl SUXXORZ!!!" will just generate a "There are no further questions at this time" from the operator.
      2) Ask a difficult question that Darl hasn't answered before. Let him hang himself, it'll sink in better with the investors that way.
      3) Keep going until they cut you off. They're not likely to let many more unfamiliar names ask questions after this.
      4) If anyone asks, you didn't get any of these ideas from Slashdot.

      Here's hoping for a great conference tomorrow!

  • My bet. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jaywalk ( 94910 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:30PM (#8447452) Homepage
    EV1.net servers or Lindows?
    Since SCO seems to be acting as SCO's catspaw and EV1.net seems to be in league with them both, I'm betting on Lindows. Another chance for SCO to do Microsoft's dirty work for them.
    • Re:My bet. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by One Louder ( 595430 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:50PM (#8447711)
      That seems unlikely.

      Lindows is a technology company, and isn't in the Fortune 1000, which doesn't seem to match the profile of the targets announced yesterday.

      Of course, SCO has said one thing and done another many, many times. If they did attack Lindows.com, then that would certainly dismiss any notion that they aren't shilling for Redmond. Given the potential multi-year delay in the MS trademark litigation, there are probably more than a few experienced IP lawyers on retainer by Lindows.com that are looking for someone else's leg to chew on. And certainly Robertson would love to squeeze more than a little PR out of such a suit.

  • by metallicagoaltender ( 187235 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:30PM (#8447453) Homepage
    Obviously logic hasn't played a big part in any of their actions, but why in the hell would they sue EV1, one of the few companies that bothered to buy an SCO license, not to mention the fact that they admitted it!

    It's not exactly case of biting the hand that feeds you, but it certainly be a case of alienating an ally that probably doesn't need to be alienated.
  • by Aardpig ( 622459 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:30PM (#8447459)

    They also have said that these first two lawsuits will be against companies that hold SCO Unix licenses.

    When a company or organisation starts suing its own customers, then it's a sure sign that its business model is completely fucked. Look at the RIAA: suing Joe Teenager, to try and offset the fact that their profits are dropping like a lead balloon.

    • by justMichael ( 606509 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:42PM (#8447617) Homepage
      You mis-quoted the article...
      ...it has targeted for lawsuits, but it has said the first two will be aimed at companies that hold Unix licenses.

      There is no SCO before Unix in that sentance.

      Further up the article you will see
      SCO, which owns a disputed amount of Unix intellectual property, inherited the agreements by which inventor AT&T and its successors licensed the operating system to IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Silicon Graphics, numerous universities and others.

      It's a safe bet that who ever they are going after is in that list.
      • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:18PM (#8447940)
        >> It's a safe bet that who ever they are going
        >> after is in that list.

        I'm not sure about that. Does the Vatican run Linux? That's about as close as we can get to: "SCO sues God" which seems to be the logical conclusion to all of this. ;-)
        • by MrByte420 ( 554317 ) * on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:14AM (#8448747) Journal
          Well..

          It appears, Yes..
          Lets see what SCO does with this one...

          sh-2.05a$ telnet www.vatican.va 80
          Trying 212.77.1.243...
          Connected to www.vatican.va.
          Escape character is '^]'.
          GET / HTTP/1.0

          HTTP/1.1 200 OK
          Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 04:11:56 GMT
          Server: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.8.9 OpenSSL/0.9.6g PHP/4.2.2
          Last-Modified: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 15:30:18 GMT
          • by kalidasa ( 577403 ) * on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @08:39AM (#8450758) Journal

            Connected to www.vatican.va.
            Escape character is '^]'.
            GET / HTTP/1.0

            HTTP/1.1 200 OK
            Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 04:11:56 GMT
            Server: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.8.9 OpenSSL/0.9.6g PHP/4.2.2

            Well, there it is, folks, final proof: God runs UNIX. You Windows folks had better repent, and right soon.

      • by GOD_ALMIGHTY ( 17678 ) <curt DOT johnson AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:32PM (#8448063) Homepage
        I was wondering when someone was going to catch that. I think the first 50 guesses on this thread could be modded off-topic.

        My personal guess is SGI and HP. Sun already bought a license and SCO is already suing Novell and IBM. I doubt they would go after a university, they want a quick settlement to fuel their pump and dump scheme and a university might fight longer.

        Anyone got odds?
    • by Homebrewed ( 154837 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:45PM (#8447667)
      Could they, would they, please be incredibly stupid enough to sue McDonald's, whose German operations are moving to SuSE. Talk about being crushed....
  • News? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:30PM (#8447460) Homepage Journal
    All this play by play of SCO is really tiring. It's like a bunch of fleas issuing flyers every time the dog takes a walk. Yes, something's happening. No, it's not that important.
    • Re:News? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Xtifr ( 1323 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:46PM (#8447676) Homepage
      Actually, slashdot blew a perfect opportunity to post a dupe that wasn't a dupe (for once). "SCO says they'll sue an end user tomorrow" was a headline yesterday and could have been an equally valid headline today. :)

      In any case, I'd explain how you can set your preferences so you don't have to waste your time on SCOldera stories if you don't find them interesting, but since you're "ObviousGuy", I don't have to point out something so obvious to you, do I? :p ;)
  • by BoneFlower ( 107640 ) <anniethebruce@ g m a i l . c om> on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:31PM (#8447465) Journal
    And I'm addicted to SCO news stories.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:43PM (#8447637)

      Hello George.

      My name is Anonymous Coward. I spend all my time on slashdot, groklaw and the yahoo SCOX board reading and writing about newSCO.

      Unlike you, I'm not addicted. I can stop any time, it's just that I don't want to.

      This makes me a better person than you. HTH.

  • by sroddy ( 216493 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:31PM (#8447470)
    I'd hate to pay the bill for that telecon. Considering it usually costs $1 per minute per participant, perhaps we can put a dent in their extortion fund!

    Seriously though, I hope the company that is hosting the telecon has a lot of lines reserved.
  • by overbyj ( 696078 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:31PM (#8447471)
    is for SCO to sue SCO. They are not a tech company but they use Linux. (go check Netcraft....they have actually dabbled in BSD for a bit on www.sco.com)
  • Basically (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LittleLebowskiUrbanA ( 619114 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:31PM (#8447475) Homepage Journal
    This is the second announcement about an upcoming announcement today by SCO, right?
    Meanwhile PJ at Groklaw [groklaw.net] is busy tearing them a new one over mentioning her in one of their propaganda blasts. Good reading. Hate to have her as one of my enemies.
    • Re:Basically (Score:4, Informative)

      by Unoti ( 731964 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @11:18PM (#8448374) Journal
      That is good reading. My favorite part is where teh SCO PR guy says, "I find that there is so much misinformation on Groklaw that is misconstrued and twisted that it's probably one step above a lot of the ranting and dribble that takes place on Slashdot.'. . ." Isn't is drivel, not dribble?
  • by HappyCitizen ( 742844 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:32PM (#8447478) Homepage Journal
    I can't believe they are still around. Other countries take control and don't let them spread their junk. Why can't they be stopped here in the US too? I mean, it just urks me that after producing no evidence and spreading FUD, they haven't been required to stop, and in fact will file another backless lawsuit (or so the claim). Atleast its a good sign that they are taking so long. It shows that they're running out of juice
  • Haha! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cliffy2000 ( 185461 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:32PM (#8447486) Journal
    "They also have said that these first two lawsuits will be against companies that hold SCO Unix licenses." Wow. That's a great business plan. Alienate your few and diminishing customers.
  • by Aardpig ( 622459 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:34PM (#8447507)

    They also have said that these first two lawsuits will be against companies that hold SCO Unix licenses. (EV1.net servers or Lindows?)"

    Since EV1.net is in the process of climbing into bed with Microsoft, and SCO has been warming itself under the same blankets for quite some time, I think it more likely that Lindows will be sent to the doghouse.

    Then again, in a vain attempt to turn back the tide of hatred directed at it, SCO might turn around and sue Microsoft. What a twist that would be!

  • Still (Score:3, Informative)

    by kaizenfury7 ( 322351 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:34PM (#8447509)
    Interestingly enough, although their stock (SCOX) ha s been in a decline for the past few months (it was 16+ the last time that I saw) it jumped quite a bit today. Up 1.15 to 13.42. Any reason why?
    • Bagholders Inc. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:11PM (#8447878)

      Yeah, they're known as "bagholders". These are the imbeciles that know nothing about the company, the case(s) or in fact anything, except a) that the PR says "We'll sue" and b) When companies announce that they'll sue, they go up. Also, there was the "We sold an IP license" thingy, you might remember? The one that noone know if it brought in any money for SCOX, but it sure made a lot of PR!

      Anyhow; The bagholders are then sold into by insiders, which make a tidy profit.

      The job of the bagholders then is to sit around and watch the stock slowly fall down again.

      Typically they'll panic and sell at a big loss. Some bagholders are smarter and hang around for the second wave of bagholders and make it out at plus/minus zero.

  • I think SCO is waiting for the media outlets to sign and return the NDA before they let them know who the lawsuits are against.
  • by Pentagram ( 40862 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:36PM (#8447531) Homepage
    We are going to postpone our suing of two companies but tomorrow we are going to sue THREE!
  • So the logic is... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by someguy42 ( 609667 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:36PM (#8447532)
    ...buy a SCO licence, have SCO slap a lawsuit on you anyway?? How do they expect to sell licences after this insanity?? Kinda a matter of shooting oneself in the foot.
  • by Radi-0-head ( 261712 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:36PM (#8447535)
    The #1 spot for Wired News' Vaporware Awards in 2004 goes to:

    SCO for their "still pending" lawsuit! Congratulations guys!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:38PM (#8447565)
    If you had read the article the other day on Groklaw it stated that (I'm paraphrasing) that purchasing this license doesn't allow that user to actually USE SCO's intellectual property. All it really does is say "look, we know we're in the wrong here, so let's settle up".

    Now because of the fact these people signed up for their license that shows they "admit guilt". So not only did they pay SCO the $799 (or whatever it is now) extortion fee, they also paid SCO to sue them. That's how the legal system works, my friends. EV1 and Lindows (if it's actually true) will get a first hand lesson now.

    In a sense, buying a license under these methods and terms is basically the same as signing a confession to a crime that wasn't even committed.
  • SCO Unix != SCO IP (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tony ( 765 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:50PM (#8447712) Journal
    They also have said that these first two lawsuits will be against companies that hold SCO Unix licenses. (EV1.net servers or Lindows?)

    Seems like they are saying they are going to sue someone who has already licensed Unixware or some other SCO-sold Unix OS, and *not* someone who has already licensed their "SCO IP," like EV1.

    I bet they go after someone who has used SCO's OS in the past, but has been migrating to Linux. Nothing like a little retribution.

    Of course, it's hard to tell with these bastards. They don't seem to be too.... stable. Mentally. Financially. Whatever.
  • by Sparky77 ( 633674 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @09:57PM (#8447780) Homepage
    Darl: "Thanks everybody for listening in on this financial meeting. We've got some really good numbers to talk about today. Our core product, Turbo Litigation Plus, is doing very well right now. We've got more penetration in the court room market than any of our competitors and we feel that things are only going to get better from here on out."

    Investor: "Can I just say that I love what this latest release had done to stock prices. I'm sleeping on a bed of money at home right now."

    Darl: "That's great to hear. We're glad your happy, but please hold your comments until I'm finished speaking."

    Investor: "..."

    Darl: "Right now I'd like to announce a couple more features that we've added to Turbo Litigation Plus."

    Listeners: A hush....Pent up excitement...Maniacal greed...

    Darl: "First, we've decided to add Hasbro to our list of targets. We've discovered that the substance that give's Nerf(TM) toys their "Nerfiness", if you will, is actually part of the Intellectual Property of SCO in a very literal sense. It's what makes up 90% of our brains over here."

    Investor: "Excellent!"

    Darl: "Please man! *slaps the table* Let me speak!"

    Investor: "..."

    Darl: "Secondly, after a toss up between Ronco, the maker of the indespensible Door Saver(TM) which of course was actually invented by Billy over here, and McDonalds, maker of the McDarl, we've chosen to add, wait for it, ourselves!"

    Listeners: Gasp!

    Darl: "Yes folks, we're going to sue ourselves. I mean think about it, we own all our own Intellectial Property, we only have to pay half as much in lawyer fees, and I love to cross examine myself."

    Listeners: Applause

    Darl: "Thank you all for your time. SCO Rules!"

    Advisor: "Darl..."

    Darl: "Sorry."
  • AutoZone (Score:5, Informative)

    by ceswiedler ( 165311 ) * <chris@swiedler.org> on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:00PM (#8447807)
    I bet one of them is AutoZone. SCO is pissed that AutoZone switched from SCO Unix to Linux, and claims that couldn't have been done without violating their IP. The meat of their argument is on groklaw here [groklaw.net] (Supplemental #8), and if you scroll down you can see some AutoZone employees refute the argument. Search for the comment by 'jbgreer'.
    • Re:AutoZone (Score:5, Insightful)

      by -tji ( 139690 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @11:25PM (#8448423) Journal
      That's hilarious..

      For autozone, the claim that IBM copied libraries from SCO Openserver, to allow their old apps to work in Linux. Okay, there is some logic there.. that could feasibly violate licensing terms.

      But, they also claim that IBM violated their software licensing agreement with Sherwin Williams and Target, by inducing them to switch to Linux. What the hell kind of License do they have?? It forbids users from switching to competitive products? I kind of doubt it.

      The hilarious part is that customers are fleeing from SCO as quickly as they can. And, SCO claims it is because of IBM's involvement - not the fact that SCO have abandoned any hopes of competing with their products and switched the whole company focus to litigation. You would have to think that any responsible organization currently using SCO is putting together plans or actively moving to another OS.
      • Not unheard off (Score:5, Interesting)

        by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @04:23AM (#8449987) Journal
        Bioware released neverwinter nights for linux. Well kinda off. Their license with their windows installer supplier forbids them from using other installer software. Meaning someone else had to write an installer script. Not to difficult for the linux community but still prove that idiotic contracts keep getting signed.

        Granted this was using two different products at the same time but close enough.

  • by levin ( 170168 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:03PM (#8447836) Homepage

    Although SCO's actions have attracted some negative attention from the Open Source Community, many High Scool teacers are exhuberant about the company's recent actions. Bob Frampton, High School calculus teacher at Frederick Davis High said of SCO's recent actions, "It's just great, they're literally changing the way we teach mathematics to our future leaders. It's only thanks to SCO that we can ask exciting new problems such as, 'If every day SCO doubles the number of lawsuits they claim to file the following day, how many days will it take before nobody cares?' or, 'If SCO doesn't play this thing out right, how long will it take before the Fed nails them with fraud? Extra Credit: how many board members will get caught? Support your answer by proof.'"

    Not just math teachers are thrilled, though. Says Jane Yargood of another local High School, "Darl McBride really deserves a cookie, it's so great that we can teach students about logical fallacies through real world context!" With the end of this somewhat less than momentous case nowhere in sight, it's good to see that some of our educators can find the silver lining in any situation.

  • by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt.nerdflat@com> on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:07PM (#8447863) Journal
    But they never mentioned exactly *WHICH* tuesday they were referring to.

    This reminds me of the "Free Ice Cream Tomorrow" sign that a guy had at his ice cream store in the early 1900's... when asked about why he wasn't giving ice cream away even though the sign had been up for over a day already, his response was always the same "because it's not tomorrow yet... it's still today".

  • Hotline (Score:5, Funny)

    by lazy_arabica ( 750133 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:11PM (#8447879) Homepage
    You can call 1-800-818-5264 code 141144 Wednesday at 9:00am MST to join in with your questions
    And tomorrow we'll read that this damned open-source community has organized a DDoS attack on SCO hotline !!
  • Darl's an ass (Score:5, Interesting)

    by codefungus ( 463647 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:12PM (#8447889) Homepage Journal
    He spent 2 years in Osaka trying to convert Buddhists to MORMANS and the most intellegent thing he can say about it is that he got free Japanese lessons?

    And the reason why Darl is the way he is?

    "I am absolutely driven by people saying I can't do something."

    Read more:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/29/business/ yourmon ey/29boss.html
    • by dmaxwell ( 43234 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:19AM (#8448777)
      I am absolutely driven by people saying I can't do something.

      Remember that kid we all knew when we were growing up that would take any dare? It was fun at first but you had to watch what you said around him after a while. Who wanted to explain to the kid's mom that he dared him to jump in front of a train? Darl seems to be just that sort of easily manipulated hothead.

      Darl is no little kid. He's a rather nasty adult. He's already walked up to the biggest bully on the block and punched him in the nose. What else can we goad him into doing?

      I like another poster's suggestion.

      Hey Darl! We know you read Slashdot. So I'm going to make a dare with you. McDonalds is your largest customer. They even have a contractual relationship with you. And we all know what SCO says contracts are for. McDonalds has also been piloting Linux POS terminals in Germany at least. ..quite possibly with an eye to migrating from SCO's products. Darl, there is no way in hell you would win a suit against McDonalds. Their legal department would burn the SCO pimple right off of Utah's ass. Go ahead Darl. Sue McDonalds. I double dog dare you. You can't sue McDonalds and win.
  • by danwiz ( 538108 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @10:17PM (#8447927)
    Don't toll-free 800 numbers cost the company money on a per-user basis? What would the financial impact of everyone with an interest in Linux dialing in to listen?

    The slashdot-effect on an 800 number?

  • by linuxguy ( 98493 ) on Tuesday March 02, 2004 @11:05PM (#8448286) Homepage

    Look for it on the right side of the front page.
  • According to the news.com.com article, SCO is suing two more companies that have contracts with them... That makes 4 companies that they've sued in the last year -- all of whom have previous contracts with SCO (IBM, Novell and the two unnamed SCOldiers).

    At the same time, they're claiming that the best way to avoid litigation with them is to sign a contract that acknowledges that they have more power over you (and Linux code) than most people believe they have any hope of proving in court.

    Come into my parlour, said the spider to the fly.
    You'll be so much much safer when I've baked you in my pie.
  • by BeBoxer ( 14448 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:03AM (#8448676)
    McDonalds is my guess. Someone else guessed AutoZone because they are also moving away from SCO Unix. But I think McDonalds will have better PR punch, so that's where I'm putting my money. I think it's also realistic to assume that they will also make the announcement during the "earnings" call itself so as to minimize the amount of time they have to spend discussing just how horrible their balance sheet was last quarter.
  • Who's up first? (Score:4, Informative)

    by linuxguy ( 98493 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @12:50AM (#8449020) Homepage
    I generally dont spend a lot of time reading parodies, but this one was good. I highly recommend it *after* watching the Darl interview video, posted on news.com [news.com] front page today. Look for it on the right side of the page.

    Who's up first [groklaw.net]

    Higly entertaining content.
  • by Pan T. Hose ( 707794 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @01:47AM (#8449285) Homepage Journal

    I have more and more emphaty for this company, because they turn out to be just like me...

    Boss, this new program I'm writing will have ten million innovative features!

    Did I say ten million? What I really meant was ten thousand, but they are really great!

    Those two hundred features I've been talking about are really awesome, you'll see when it's done!

    For example, take a look at this brilliant idea of mine! I have hundreds more!

    Ken Thompson? Of course! I didn't say that this particular idea was mine! I was only saying that my ideas are at least equally brilliant! It was only an example of innovative cutting edge idea! In the seventies? So you have to admit how innovative it must have been back then! Wow!

    I only need some time and money... To finish the whole thing, you know.

    It will be ready tomorrow, I promise!

    No, not today, I said tomorrow!

    Did I say it yesterday? No, I would have remembered that...

    It might be ready the day after tomorrow. I only need more time to prepare an announcement of the features it's going to have.

    Not yet, but Real Soon Now!

    So, as I've said, I just have to love SCO, because they are just like me. In fact they are just like most of us working here on Duke Nukem Forever. We are working forever...

  • by SoLO ( 91992 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @02:16AM (#8449434)
    You can listen to the call online here, once it starts:

    http://biz.yahoo.com/cc/3/39693.html [yahoo.com]
  • by Knuckles ( 8964 ) <knuckles@@@dantian...org> on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @02:27AM (#8449486)
    When I open the link, Epiphany pops up a Window telling me

    You should only accept the security information if you trust "www.thescogroup.com" and "www.sco.com".
  • by Uzull ( 16705 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @03:47AM (#8449838) Homepage
    Hi, we have been in the discussion with being a high profile candidate for SCO (advertising our Linux Support for our customer's solutions)... Our Lawyer said simply : Buy a set of Linux CD Boxes and Support from SuSE, now Novell! The older, the better!
    If SCO or their Lawyers show, up show them that you are using this system, and friendly point towards the case between Novell and SCO, and that once the issues have been resolved between those 2 parties, you would be willing to comply with whatever the outcome is.

I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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